r/TheMagnusArchives • u/ARPalarion The Vast • 2d ago
Episode "18+ Scenes"?
I just recently mentioned ADs/Fiction Podcasts in a new gc my friend made where us and a bunch of other geeks can talk about stuff like TV shows, Books, etc.
One person said they'd listened to TMA & Nightvale once but immediately regretted it because they heard "18+ content", specifically grunting and growling?
From what I can assume, they're implying they didn't even finish at least 10 episodes and from what I can remember, there isn't anything explicitly sexual in these podcasts. The closest TMA got was just mentioning having sex, but I'll admit I haven't listened passed Nightvale Ep2, so maybe it's in there?
And I know they're referring to a sex scene because they, verbatim, said, "I'd rather listen to gore than listen to that."
So now I'm confused because most, if not, all of the explicit stuff in TMA is gore and Nightvale is mostly just Cecil narrating. Am I misremembering certain episodes?
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u/popileviz The Extinction 2d ago
I can't even really remember sex being explicitly mentioned in TMA aside from Squirm, where the whole thing was "yeah, so we had sex and then she exploded into worms". What grunting? TMA didn't even do a kiss sound effect until like season 5 specifically because they thought it sounded awkward in a purely audio medium
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u/Normal_Person_office 1d ago
IIRC they didn’t do a kiss sound effect until literally the last episode of the series
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u/FlamestormTheCat The Flesh 2d ago
The show does have some grunting and such in it. But it’s literally always in situations where someone is in pain or in the process of being murdered!
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u/Tallinette 2d ago edited 2d ago
And Jon being out of breath carrying a pipe. Honestly WTF were they refering to? This is so bizarre.
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u/porkUpine51 The Vast 2d ago
What podcasts are they listening to because the only squelchy squishy noises are the gore. Like the spice level in both podcasts is comparable to many Amish romance novels.
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u/304libco Librarian 2d ago
Yeah, I have no idea what they’re talking about. But it wasn’t TMA or WTNV.
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u/Tallinette 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm confused as what their definition of 18+ content is. If it's about violence / body horror, I can understand (for TMA) but if it's about sexually explicit content they're mistaken.
There's a non explicit reference to sex in Squirm and that's it.
And I've listened to the first 100 episodes of Night Vale, it's SUPER tame. Not sexually explicit at all and no graphic violence happening.
Edit: The more I think about it the weirder it is. Grunting and growling? At this point I'm pretty sure they got the wrong podcast.
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u/theredwoman95 2d ago
The WTNV thing makes me wonder if, well, they're being a bit homophobic? Because Cecil is very open about his attraction to Carlos, and queer relationships are more likely to be judged as "adult" for doing the same things as straight couples.
But I can't think of any equivalent examples early on in TMA, so I'm absolutely fucking baffled there.
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u/Mx_Reese 2d ago
I'm dying for a follow-up post. This is so mind-boggling. I need to know what exactly this person from the group chat thinks that 18+ means.
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u/MegaCrobat The Vast 2d ago
They’re probably referring to Squirm.
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u/realistidealist 2d ago
Bet according to OP they described the content as sexual “grunting and growling” and that they didn’t want to “listen to that”. Like, they are describing characters having sex ‘onscreen’ as it were, which we hear them having.
It’s been a while, but I don’t think that’s part of Squirm. That does not seem like a reasonable description on their part if it was that episode lol.
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u/Tallinette 2d ago
Pretty sure an explicit sex scene would have yanked Jon straight out of the statement. My boy isn't doing moaning worm sex sounds.
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u/realistidealist 2d ago
Jon squinting in dismay at a dusty typewritten statement containing the line “mmm, ohh baby, give it to me”, weighing whether he wants to read it in the most deadpan manner possible or just give up on this one.
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u/Tallinette 2d ago
I cracked up at that mental image. Poor man would have found a way to quit against all odds.
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u/Realistic-Salt5017 The Extinction 1d ago
Damn near choked on my lunch with that one. I can fully hear stuffy archivist Jon doing that, and Elias being like "wtf? The eye doesn’t need to see that "
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u/inhonoredglory Archivist 19h ago
Jon deadpanning in absolute boredom the most lurid pornography might be the most ace thing possible for him to do, I’m WHEEZING
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u/RavensSing The End 2d ago
The one where Timothy fucks Jane Prentiss?
That's explicit to people? It's legit a fade-to-black.
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u/FlamestormTheCat The Flesh 2d ago edited 2d ago
Doesn’t fuck Jane btw, some other girl who encountered Jane and got parasited.
Anyways, it’s not even explicit. They don’t describe the act lol. Just said it happened.
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u/MegaCrobat The Vast 2d ago
It’s really the only time I can think of that sex is even alluded to until mentions of sound traveling in the tunnels in s5x
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u/Lycanthrofuck 2d ago
Jon's moaning isn't that explicit, damn. But fr, if your friend got aroused listening to a british man narrate a story (at 10 eps in there was not a lot of main characters grunting or growling outside of statements) then that's their journey to sort out.
The only things i can think of are what others mentioned in that prentiss episode or maybe some sfx for monsters/jon inflecting at certain points when reading a statement.
Nightvale the most graphic sex thing is two boys sharing a smooch under the arby's sign one whole season in. After that, cecil will be a little horny on main but always in a passing mention kind of way that pulls the punch and swings it into comedy.
Or they're mixing up these pods with something else.
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u/Tallinette 2d ago
Or maybe Cecil describing Carlos' beautiful hair reads as explicit to some? What do we know, everyone's different!
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u/Lycanthrofuck 2d ago
The military cemetary comment about his teeth? Obscene. What does that man do with his teeth? Other men? What a harlot.
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u/TheLuckySpades 2d ago
Cecil in WTNV is very gay (and open about it), but the show is not at all explicit in anything, closest is a description that people kiss and Carlos being weird, and John in TMA is very ace, at most there are descriptions that are pretty much "fade to black, fucked up shit happened", no grunting or moaning.
Especially early on in both shows where the most you get is Cecil crushing on Carlos and his teeth like a military cemetery, and John reading dusty pages in a basement.
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u/liquidmirrors The Spiral 2d ago edited 1d ago
Those both sound like extreme overreactions in regards to what happens in these shows. Like, it sounds like they took the whole “men moaning in podcasts” joke comment way too seriously. The only sex scene in Archives is a fade-to-black sequence followed by literal allusions to gore so I think they’re completely overreacting if that’s what they’re saying verbatim.
Not gonna lie I’m with everyone else commenting that I want to know what the hell that friend was talking about and why they were acting like Archives and Night Vale have explicit sex scenes when Archives alludes to sex and Night Vale S1 doesn’t even seem to mention it in depth at all. It feels like they’ve fallen into the overly puritan trap where they see any reference to sex or intimacy in any was as a blatant sex scene that or they’re homophobic lol.
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u/SpookyVoidCat The Buried 2d ago
The only thing I can think of is if they accidentally skipped ahead and got an earful of some scene where Jon is suffering in pain and, lacking context, your friend assumed the noises were sexual?
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u/SparrowWingYT 2d ago
(this is how I found out nightvale is also gay) (its next on my listening list)
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u/HollowPomegranate The Flesh 1d ago
Wtnv is the original queer podcast! It’s the reason story podcasting as we know it is so saturated with queer representation :3
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u/TiredCoffeeTime 1d ago
Cecil declares his love for this character on public radio in Ep1 and this goes on for bunch of episodes lol
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u/elouasal 2d ago
Oh my god that is absolutely ridiculous 😭 The only times anything sexual is mentioned in TMA is in Squirm, where it's entirely non-explicit, or some suggestive joke or other (extremely rare) and I'm not sure about WTNV but from what I've heard it's not explicit at all. I genuinely do not understand what they are talking about, unless they consider gay people existing in a series "+18 content", like other people in this comment section said.
However, maybe they listened to a different podcast and confused it with these two? I've only listened to TMA, a bit of TMAGP and Camp:Here & There, but my friend who listened to EOS 10 said that there was a sex scene in the end of the first season, but I also remember him saying that it wasn't this explicit? Could be wrong though.
Aside from that, I think there's some kissing in Juno Steel? From early on too. I've definitely heard some people voice their discomfort at that.
I think you should ask them what they mean by that, because I'm honestly losing my mind a little at this 😭
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u/nuclearporg The Lonely 1d ago
I can't remember how on-screen/in-ear EOS10 is (I need to re listen to that one...) but they definitely get up to sexy shenanigans. It's doctors, so you hear a lot about various genitalia for sure. Juno Steel made a point of having kissing in-ear - despite being a little cringy to hear, they felt it was important to make sure the queer relationships were really represented and since they couldn't do it visually, this what what they had. It's fairly tame, from what I remember, though.
I know Mark has made David do terrible vocal things in the name of Shadows at the Door, but not all of them were intended to be sexual. (Iirc there was one moaning ghost so there's just so much recording of that 🤣)
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u/_lucyquiss_ The Spiral 2d ago
so there's grunting and groaning but it's of pain, not pleasure. TMA is not slightly erotic. There is mentions of sex in atleast one episode but it's literally just a mention that it happened, no details except the gore afterwards when she explodes into worms.
The main character is also largely considered asexual and that reading is endorsed by the writer.
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u/realistidealist 2d ago edited 2d ago
I went and got the transcript for Squirm, as well as relistening to that part of the ep. This is literally the whole mention of sex, just a narration stating that it happened. There are no moans or grunts, just these words.
But I swear I wasn’t trying to take advantage. I asked her again and again if she was sure, but she just kept nodding and dragged me to the bedroom. I mean, we had sex. There’s not much more to say about that, really. The important thing is what happened afterwards.
As we were lying there in bed, exhausted, I rested my head against her shoulder. I was about to say something or other, but before I could…
((Followed by nonsexual gore and horror. That’s it, that’s the whole sex mention.)) Feel free to share this in your groupchat so that your friends can judge whether this is too much for them lol. Full transcript: https://snarp.github.io/magnus_archives_transcripts/episode/006.html
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u/TureenlessActivities The Buried 2d ago
WTNV and TMA's most sexual audios are two people kissing, and it’s pretty tame at that.
Did they listen to random episodes? Because some of the whimpering and groaning in pain could be mistaken as explicit scenes if you didn’t know the context (pain, crushing underground tunnels, more pain). WTNV doesn’t have anything like that.
I think that person is full of shit, homophobic, or one of these new age purity culture losers. The last two are kinda a stretch; many homophobic people consider queer content of any kind 18+. A lot of the new-age puritans are totally fine with gore, which seems hypocritical to me, but treat any sexual content like it’s the devil. The desensitization is deeply weird to me since they often argue that morals you would think the act with consent is more tolerable than the one that’s almost exclusively non-consensual.
I say kinda because it’s not immediately obvious that Jon is queer unless you look up fanart.
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u/Aethey_ Researcher 2d ago
Are they maybe thinking of Dreamboy? It's a completely separate podcast, but it was put out under the Nightvale Presents umbrella. It's pretty darn explicit, though as far as I listened (only one or two episodes in, admittedly), there wasn't any on-screen sex (or sound effects of said sex), just descriptions...
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u/AQuietViolet The Eye 2d ago
This was my only guess, except even in Dreamboy, as you say, it's all prose description, not enacted scenes. Lots of groaning and grunts in Malevolent, but that's entirely poor Arthur interacting with his environment (falling in holes, getting shot, chased by monsters), not other characters (and certainly not in any sexual contexts). Okay, there are some fistfights, but how on earth could you confuse...?
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u/TiredCoffeeTime 1d ago edited 1d ago
The final episode of Dreamboy has pretty explicit description and sound of flesh slapping and the characters moaning haha
There's also that other scene with lots of heavy breathing though it was mostly description
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u/TiredCoffeeTime 1d ago
lol nice to hear Dreamboy mention here.
I'll never get over the series not getting a second season.
As for the on-screen sex, just wait...
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u/gelphie_is_real 1d ago
This whole thread is so funny to me. What could they POSSIBLY be referring to 😭
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u/ARPalarion The Vast 12h ago
I know, right!? I've also relistened to Squirm now and I'm still confused. Maybe they misremembered it with a different podcast?
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u/Tallinette 2h ago
That's so weird. Could you ask them to clarify what podcast/ what episode they were refering to?
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u/Too-many-Bees 2d ago
There's no graphic sex scene in either podcast. It is referred to off screen if at all. TMA does have plenty of violence, but it doesn't sound like this is the kind of 18+ they are talking about
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u/The-Masked-Magician The Eye 2d ago
As someone’s who’s finished up to episode 26 of WTNV, what on earth are they talking about???
There’s no explicit content like that, or anything that could be mistaken for it. Unless they’re talking about Cecil being gay, but that’s not explicit either. Bro just rambles about Carlos’s hair and teeth.
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u/ExplodedKayak The Desolation 2d ago
the only thing i can think of thats *sexually* explicit is MAG 6, Squirm, but it was only mentioned and not outright depicted.
"Statement of Timothy Hodge, regarding his sexual encounter with one Harriet Lee and her subsequent death."
"I mean, we had sex. There’s not much more to say about that, really. The important thing is what happened afterwards."
quotes taken from the episode itself from the transcripts website. Thats it. Thats literally it. Harriet's death soon after is described, very unnvering and disgusting, but thats par for the course for horror and especially dealing with the corruption. No other mentioned sex is in the series. Theres quite a bit of cussing, and of course, more death and gore and body horror then you can spray a fire extinguisher at, but again, par for the course. All the grunting and growling noises, are pretty much all sounds of pain or exhaustion or exclamations. Theres some gross cracking n' squelching sound effects from the Flesh but that doesnt show up very early in the series. I havent listened to Welcome To Nightvale, i cannot give insight on that. Probably should ask their subreddit too, if you want answers from both sides. I think the guy you mentioned was kind of just a pussy, to be blunt.
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u/Disney_Dork1 2d ago
I don’t remember there being in sex noises or anything that could sound like that in the first 10 episodes of TMA. I don’t remember where the bug sex episode came in but it might’ve been around that. I know there are pained moans or monster growl. Those are in relation to being in pain or monster sounds. I don’t remember those being in that early of episodes either. If they don’t like to hear the gross descriptions of things then fair or some gross sound effects. I listened to it recently for the first time
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u/Impressive-Hippo-883 2d ago
Body horror can definitely be 18+. Did they say it’s about fucking specifically? If not, that seems like a fair description of TMA for me. It’s an adult show with graphic depictions of horror and violence.
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u/wakaya_forever The Vast 2d ago
Maybe they listened to Lost John's Cave? There is some panting there. My bf was passively listening to it (I was listening on speaker with him in the room) and he also jokingly said it sounded a bit sexual. Tbh he could have also just been messing with me 😅
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u/sax87ton 1d ago
The first 10 episodes are just John reading statements. They are in first person sure, but he is reading off a price of paper.
It’s not really until the end of the first season they start doing stuff first personally.
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u/redbullamberedition The Desolation 23h ago
could it be about ep 6?? squirm is literally a sex horror lol
edit: punctuation
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u/Blobthecat 2h ago
The only podcasts off the top of my head that have those sorts of nsfw sounds are EOS 10 and The Penumbra Podcast (aka the podcast notorious for kissing noises). I've listened to TMA like 5 times and there are no sounds like that at all. Welcome to Nightvale also does not. Both podcasts have sexual references but there's not anything that you hear so I'm not sure what they are on about.
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u/kimship 2d ago
Are you sure they aren't just homophobic? Some people think that anything that might be slightly gay should be 18+ only. That doesn't quite explain their aversion to TMA early on, because it's so focused on the statements at that point, but I know that Cecil's crush and mentions of Carlos's perfection are pretty consistent in the early episodes. If they know that there are queer relationships later on in TMA, then they might be projecting that onto early S1 scenes because it makes them uncomfortable?